Erie Basin

About Erie Basin

Erie Basin is the most specialized secondhand destination in Brooklyn, and one of the most respected. Since opening on Van Brunt Street, it has built a national reputation among collectors and jewelers for a stock of antique and vintage jewelry that spans the 18th century through the 1980s — Georgian mourning rings, Victorian gold, Art Deco platinum, mid-century modernist silver, and unusual studio pieces that rarely surface on the open market.

This is not a dig shop, and it is important to set expectations accordingly. Erie Basin is a specialist dealer: pieces are researched, described with real scholarship, and priced at collector rates rather than thrift rates. Engagement and wedding rings are a significant part of the business, and the shop has become a genuine destination for couples looking for something with history instead of a new stone. Alongside the jewelry, the shop carries a small, tightly edited selection of antique objects and decorative pieces.

Access requires planning. The Red Hook showroom operates by appointment Monday through Friday, with occasional announced Saturday walk-in hours posted on eriebasin.com. Book ahead rather than dropping in — an appointment also means you get the owner's full attention and the context behind each piece, which is most of the value of shopping here in the first place.

Red Hook has no subway. The B61 bus runs along Columbia Street into the neighborhood, the B77 connects to the F/G at Cobble Hill, and the NYC Ferry serves the Red Hook dock seasonally. Van Brunt Street's restaurants and coffee shops — and Open Invite a few blocks north — make it easy to build a proper Red Hook afternoon around an Erie Basin appointment.

What to Expect